PHIL Courses

Dr. Richard Swinburne

November 14th and 15th, 2013 @ 7pm, Munson Chapel

Richard G. Swinburne is a British philosopher of religion.He is an Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Oxford.
Over the last 50 years Swinburne has been a very influential proponent
of philosophical arguments for the existence of God. His philosophical
contributions are primarily in philosophy of religion and philosophy of science. He aroused much discussion with his early work in the philosophy of religion, a trilogy of books consisting of The Coherence of Theism, The Existence of God, and Faith and Reason.

--God and MoralityMany philosophers claim that whether
some action is morally good or bad, obligatory or wrong does
not depend in any way on whether there is a God and whether he
has told us what to do. Many religious believers claim that no action could be morally good or bad,
obligatory or wrong unless there is a
God and he has told us what to do. This lecture defends a
mid-way position, that while some
actions would still be morally good or bad, obligatory or
wrong, even if there were no God, nevertheless the existence
and commands of God make a great difference to which actions
are morally good etc, how we can know
which actions are morally good, and how
important it is to do actions which are
morally good. Also, if there is a God, he can help us to
do good, and forgive us when we fail.

Friday, November 15th at 7:00 pm

--Why a Christian life is the best possible lifeGod has
revealed through Jesus Christ how he wants us
to live – to worship him and ask him for things, to tell other
people about him, to serve our fellow humans in many of the ways secular
morality also recognises as good, to treat
human life as sacred, to tell the truth and keep promises, to live a life pure in our
family relations, and to follow the
special vocation God has for each of us. God has sound reasons for wanting us
to live in this way. If we believe that there is a
God, then we are indeed be blameworthy
if we fail to live in this way.
But even if we are agnostic, it could still be good for us to live in
this way - it’s
worth taking a risk to obtain great
goals in this life and the next life, which can be obtained
in no other way.